Let’s ramble…

It’s late spring, almost summer. I always feel new energy when the seasons change. And this year seems to be an emergence from the awful pandemic years.

My predominant thinking – I want color and vibrance in my world. Recently I went into my closet and removed all black-predominant dresses and blouses. Of course I left one, a Highlands wrap dress, on reserve for, can I say it, a funeral…

Recent makes…

Tessuti Margot pants, wide leg variation

FibreMood Augusta shirt

Style Arc Albie shirt

New Look 6352 shift variation

A couple weeks ago I went into Nordstrum Rack looking for a bra. It’s only ten minutes from my house, but I don’t often shop RTW. It was a successful shopping foray, but that’s for later. What impressed me on entering was that everything was black or grey. I swear, if I see another black legging/tee shirt combo, no matter the body shape, I’ll lose my cool 🙂 Of course I will see this again – a couple of generations of women behind me live in them. How depressing, and, IMHO, how unattractive. I used to lament the tight muffin tops of women when I lived in Miami. Current trends eclipse the latter … and make me long for that time!

I’m curious about men’s reaction to the trend. Lately, I think, men have surfaced as the most fashion-centric demographic. Well, that’s OK and good on them. I’m a fan.

Quite a ramble, right! Enough said, I love color and the attraction of interesting designs in both patterns and fabric. Glad I can sew! Thoughts?

Ciao, Coco

Summer pants and the wide-leg season

I love wide leg pants – always have, always will. Do you remember The Limited and its wonderful high-waisted shorts and pants? Sigh…

All winter I’ve worn Bob pants (Style Arc), all in linen, I so love this pattern. Now Orlando has heated up, and I thought it would be fun to rock a Florida vibe for summer – wide leg, large print pants

This fabric (Mood Fabrics) is actually pretty incredible. It’s 80% rayon/20% linen, a loose weave, and very light. Bonus – it really doesn’t wrinkle! Great name – Kelly Green Brilliant Buds. I’ve never before found a fabric with this percentage combo of rayon and linen. I’m on the lookout for more…

My pattern – well, I love the fit of my much-evolved Tessuti pants. They have an elastic waist, but are not bunchy at the waist (evolved – the waist just scoots over my hips, I did a 1/2″ full tummy adjustment to center the waist, and I long ago adjusted the rise for my crotch measurements). I simply widened the leg out to a full-length pant. Rather than adjust my original pattern, the one with the ties at the ankle, I drafted new tissue. It was actually very easy to do. And I love the result.

Sewing tip – the fabric very prone to raveling, so I serged all my edges before construction. I do this a lot, because I sew voile, challis, linen, and lawn. This is Florida! where even silk feels hot. It’s not hard to pull out the serger needle thread and remove the stitching as I go along.

I love these!

top: Simplicity 8889, Mimi G designer

More on the horizon, next up is this lovely bug-infested rayon woven fabric from Mood Fabrics:

A wide-leg pant aside: I purchased the Fibre Mood Naima trousers, did a muslin, and plan to work with the pattern more in the fall, add pleats in the back, and mimic the Margiela $900 wide leg pants 🙂

And I love the Fibre Mood Kenzo pants variation by @geri_in_stitches,.

Ciao! Coco

Goodbye Evernote – new sewing file tool

My sewing notes and files are so important to me! When I started blogging my projects in late 2012, I set up two filekeepers: One to store my projects/images, and one to store my pattern/fabric/designer notes.

I use Finder on my Macbook Air to store project images. I include all the pics associated with a project, even if I don’t use them in a post. The hierarchy is Year/Project type/Project, and it’s basically everything I’ve sewn.

My second filekeeper is a note-taking tool where I keep all the action. I have data on patterns and versions sewn, fabrics, designers, etc. Also records of sewing plans, links, how-to’s, and so on. I even have a wishlist for books to read, science and tech research, and a small note journal. Since early 2013, I’ve used Evernote as this data tool. I’ve had a subscription that stored and synched my files on multiple devices (Macbook, iPhone, iPad).

But the bad news – for the last 24 months of so, it has gotten glitchy, with a constant stream of updates that are riddled with bugs, an increasingly awkward user interface, and unpredictable synch across devices. In short, over-featured and under-tested. It was no longer a stream-lined and pleasurable tool. A hot mess.

Have you noticed your favorite apps over-reaching and becoming a chore?

Well, bottom line, I did a bunch of research on Evernote alternatives for my Macbook. By far the most recommended is Bear. I decided to go for the free app, which doesn’t include synch across multiple devices (although for it’s offered for $2.99/month). But I want a simple, uncluttered, de-linked data store. Bear is tag-oriented (as opposed to the notebook base in Evernote). And the image above is from my own Bear!

Steps:

• Created export files on Evernote for my notebooks (Evernote is notebook based, with tagged notes in each). Saved the files on my desktop and backed up to iCloud.
• Stopped auto-payment for Evernote on Paypal.
• Canceled my Evernote subscription (they don’t make it easy to find or do. It took me 4 attempts before I had a successful request).
• Uninstalled Evernote from my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook.
• Installed Bear on my Macbook.
• Imported the Evernote export files. Bear is set up to import multiple formats. Amazing – perfect, no glitches, no missing data, images, tables, or files.
• Backed-up my Macbook.

Color me happy. Bear is fast and has a super-clean and intuitive interface.

I know this might have been a difficult read, but if you’re contemplating a change, be encouraged! Coco

Project – baggy leg jeans

Inspiration – I am in love with the idea of these baggy leg jeans. Here’s another view…

I saved the pics, but cannot remember the site. (Edit: based on info from a reader – the pics are of the Fibre Mood Zinnia blouse!) I remember that the instant comments were about the pants – where to find them!

Having exhausted my resources, I have a bit of a project in mind. I plan to start with the Mimi G pants, I have the pattern but have not sewn the pants. And I will draft a starting muslin up two sizes! to get width into the waist and legs.

And I’ve ordered fabric. I don’t often use muslin for a toile/muslin, but in this case I did. I plan to draft from the knees up while I work out the waist and leg business.

And I also found an 8 oz denim, I think it will be a perfect weight.

Both found on Amazon. I’m looking forward to this and think it will be diverting and put me to sleep at night – Coco

Embracing spring..

It’s only February 1, but here in Orlando it’s spring. The azaleas are blooming! Forget that we are at 45 degrees at night. It’s spring.

Nothing moves me to buy fabric so much as a change of season. I’m so ready to shake off autumn and winter, as well as some post and garment challenges.

Coming soon to my sewing place:

A lovely retro print challis from Cali Fabrics

Deep blue, perfect with my white hair, voile from Mood

Deep night, mystery and whimsy, voile from Mood

I doubt I am done fabric shopping! but just this much brings joy and anticipation of the change of seasons.

For now, Coco

Parting – thank you for the supportive and kind messages received re. my Augusta dress. Blogger friends – cherished.

Kilim crossbody bag

This was such a project! Of course I’ve seen all the crossbody bags on Igram and Pinterest – and on shoppers. I’ve been a fan for years, never travelled Europe without one. A story my daughter and I share is of the mother and daughter at our hotel in Paris, they had been in the Opera district, and, voila, the mom’s bag was stolen off her shoulder.

So – to update myself, I built a crossbody bag. Note the ‘built’ – I made two, the final is the result of lots of measuring and thought.

Mine finishes at 11 1/4″ wide and 10 1/4″ tall. I purposely did not do a bottom gusset, just kept it ‘envelope’ style. I only carry a small wallet, phone, tissues, and reading glasses in my bag. A formed bottom would have built it out, I wanted it to lay flat. And it worked. The zippered front panel is home to my phone, it works so well. And it’s an easy feature to sew.

Fabric: Kalim cotton/acrylic chenille upholstery fabric from Amazon. It’s not heavy and was nice to sew.

The strap is 1″ wide poly webbing. I opted not to use an adjustable strap (they can be so fussy), and I used gunmetal hardware. Against the fabric, I think silver or gold hardware would become a focal point.

Prepping the ring holders was a bit of a challenge. I used lots of white basting to keep everything aligned. I love basting!

Here’s a look at the outside and inside bags:

I chose not to add a zipper, it’s not really needed with such a small bag. So I used a magnetic snap instead.

The bag lining is Kaffe Fassett Guinea Flowers – much loved. It’s from an older Fassett collection, found online.

An interesting construction note, I narrowed and shortened the bag lining for a snug fit. The seam allowances will bump and bunch if the inside bag is not adjusted.

I used it today for the first time, grocery shopping (my equivalent of a social event). And I received a compliment at the meat counter. Be still my heart 🙂

I like it so much – do I need more, I’m thinking of where I would hang them all. What a nice problem!

Ciao – coco

Pattern Emporium Sweet Cheeks maxi dress

Orlando, and our nights are under 70 degrees, time to celebrate fall! Honestly, I spend most of my days in garments that are simply comfortable. During late spring and summer, I turn to knit pants/tee combos, like this one, Tessuti Margot pants with a Sinclair Cachet top. I have 3 of these sets, all in Kaufman laguna knit!

I’ve been itchy to sew things for fall and winter, so I’ve indulged. I love the Sweet Cheeks pattern:

Look at all those choices! Last year I sewed several tops, my favorites are, top left a midweight French terry, and below it, a striped sweater knit. The peach jersey was too stiff, the purple hatchi too clingy and loose (although I might give hatchi another go):

Could we move on please! I decided to make a maxi dress in lightweight cotton/spandex jersey. And I love it. It’s like being just warm enough while being utterly unconscious of my clothes.

Sewing notes:

• My fabric is from JoAnn, a disastrous order online on Oct 12. Of the 16 yards/4colorways, I ordered, I’ve received 5 yards. The balance is apparently out there in JoAnn never-never land. I will NEVER order from JoAnn again.

• For the maxi I took a plunge and added 28.5″ to the longest length of the top, in the high neck design. Worked great, I have plenty of room to ambulate with no fanny/hip cling.

• A tip: I sew more knits than wovens. And I’m a firm believer in stay tape in the shoulder seam. I cut it to fit between the sleeve and shoulder seam allowances to avoid bulk. Because I use so much, I order long rolls of cotton 1/4″ stay tape (check out Amazon).

• I shortened the neckband by about 1/2″. Yes, I had to remove the first one. I really dislike a band that flops out at the center front.

• The cuff is so pretty but a beast to insert. Just baste a lot and go for it.

I love this variation and plan several more (hoping that fabric will arrive).

Such fun. BTW, the instruction set is impeccable and makes sewing the pattern, all variations, a real pleasure.

Bye for now (hope you try this versatile pattern), Coco

Enticement: